According to the guy who originally posted the audio — Redditor RolandCamry — he recorded the robotic pronunciation of the word “Laurel” from vocabulary.com. Roland says he recorded the audio off his speakers, which caused the distortion.

Roland tells TMZ … he and a friend were simply surfing vocabulary.com when they came across the word. He says he heard “Laurel,” but his friend heard “Yanny” … and that’s why they posted the clip online to spark a bigger conversation.